1984 300D; The seal from the air cleaner housing to the u-pipe that goes to the turbo, was bent out of shape. It was disrupting air flow, making a whining noise. The problem is getting the new one on without bending it out of shape. The opening on the air cleaner housing has a raised middle that the seal seats on. Every time i try to fit the u-pipe on there the seal just gets forced out of shape and that wont solve anything. Has anyone ever replaced this rubber seal before? I just cant get it.

I did one about a year ago.
If I remeber right, I ended up putting the seal on aircleaner first, lubricated the outside of the seal, then pushed on the elbow.
Took me a while to figure out , kept pushing seal back inside elbow.